MINIMA Set 1 – 4

Designer: Frederic Boucher

This puzzles measures: 50 mm x 35 mm x 35 mm

The set includes:

• MINIMA 1 – Elm/Wenge
• MINIMA 2 – Walnut/Acacia
• MINIMA 3 – Purpleheart/Ash
• MINIMA 4 – Jatoba/Padauk

Frederic Boucher wrote about it:

“The idea for this series came to me in the spring of 2020. I live in the suburbs of Tokyo and like most people I have to take the train every day to get to work. As the commute is long and boring I got into the habit of carrying a notebook and a dozen Livecubes with me. I like creating packing puzzles and I suddenly thought that it could be interesting to try to create a series of mini packing puzzles based on a 2 x 2 x 3 unit format. As time went by I realized that even in such a small format we could make very fun and challenging puzzles. The MINIMA series was born!

A small comment for each model:
MINIMA 1 – Pack the three pieces into the box. 2 windows have some unusual placements into the box. Figuring out how to use them is the key to solving this one…
MINIMA 2 – Pack the four pieces into the box. One of the pieces has 5 voxels. Find out how to interact with the other pieces…
MINIMA 3 – Pack the three pieces into the box (apparent cuboid). The piece with four voxels must perform a dance in the box…
MINIMA 4 – Pack the four pieces into the box. This time all the pieces are flat. But that doesn’t mean the solution is easy…
 
The PELIKAN versions are beautifully crafted, with two different varieties of wood (pieces and box) for each model. You’re going to want to collect them all!”

Kevin Sadler wrote about it: 

“Now this is very exciting! I have previously written about the Minima series from Frederic Boucher. I do seem to have reviewed quite a lot of his puzzles over the last year or so – he is just so talented at creating designs that are simple looking but having a tremendous yet still accessible challenge. Here is another chance for you to get a copy of the whole set of 12 Minima puzzles over the next few releases. They were originally released by Tye Stahly and sold out completely more than once. Apparently these are quite difficult to manufacture and both Tye and Jakub have stated that they are really tough. 

Jakub and Jaroslav plan to create these in batches of 4 to be bought as a set or individually. This month will start with the first 4 which are definitely a great challenging introduction to the series. They have been created with a bunch of different woods which make them stunning on display.

The aim is to pack all the pieces into the boxes with all holes covered when packed. Like most of Frederic’s puzzles, some very interesting and hard to find rotations are required. They get progressively more difficult from Minima 1 to 4 and are made all the harder with the Pelikan versions because having a wooden box which you cannot see through means that you really have to plan your approach before starting to place the pieces inside. After the second piece is inserted it gets increasingly difficult to place others and you cannot see what is causing the blockage. Also the precision of the manufacture and the fact that the wooden box is less slidey than acrylic ones means that any rotations need to be very precisely placed or they will not work. 

I had to solve all four of them again from scratch as I had no recollection of the solutions from before (don’t tell Mrs S that I only need about 10 puzzles to be solved over and over again!) They are such fun and this explains why I have a HUGE collection of these Minima puzzles of varying types and from various designers. Basically I will purchase any of them when released to add to my collection. I would say that these are ESSENTIAL purchases for anyone seriously into packing puzzles – they are stunningly beautiful and a fabulous challenge!”